Samsung has been working with Oculus for a few years, but the pair just reached a new milestone in their collaboration. There's a new Gear VR coming, and it's the first "consumer-ready" version of the hardware. It'll work with all 2015 flagship Samsung phones. Oh, and it's going to sell for a much more reasonable $99.

The new Gear VR still requires a compatible phone. Just slot in a Galaxy S6, S6 Edge, Note 5, or S6 Edge+ to get started. The phone provides the screen and smarts needed to power the VR experience. The Gear VR is now 22% lighter than the previous "Innovator Edition" was, which is nice when you consider it's going to be strapped to your face. It also has an improved touchpad, apparently.

At $99 the Gear VR still seems a little spendy when you consider the phone is doing all the heavy lifting. Still, it's half the cost of the previous Gear VR. You'll be able to order the new Gear VR headset this fall, but Samsung didn't provide an exact date.

Comments

Uh, the Note 4 already has a Gear VR, and that Gear VR works with exactly all the content as this new one. The Note 4 was specifically meant to be a early test of the GearVR hardware. No one is getting "screwed."

Brandon Smith

But this one's 22% lighter!!!!

/s

Nicolas Palomo

Yes they are. Simply consider someone who has a note 4 today and want a Gear VR headset, they have to still pay 200usd at least for one.

The price of which will almost certainly drop once this new version is out. If you really wanted a GearVR for a Note 4, you already bought it. This is whining to whine.

Nicolas Palomo

Yeah you are right on that, didn't see it that way lol.

mehmehmeh

It isn't "whining to whine". Love to see how "AP Staff" reacts to simple comments. It is a genuine concern for a phone that is less than a year old.

tim242

Less than a year old? No.
You got the VR first. Stop whining

mehmehmeh

You might want to check your facts before chiming in on something. The Note 4 was released 11 months ago.

tim242

It was released October 17 in the US, September for some other countries. Regardless, it got a VR first. I forgot to whine about my S5 getting screwed.

mehmehmeh

You do realize that this isn't about who got VR first? My issue is the $199 vs $99. One price I will pay for VR, the other I won't. Pretty simple right? Fucking moron.

tim242

You have to pay to play, simple as that. You call me a fucking moron, and you say "would of".

Second grade grammar tells us that would've is a contraction for would have. Fucking moron.

mehmehmeh

Trollololollolololol

Cat Astrophy

Not at the previous price point. This is clearly a desperate move to push a flagship series that has failed miserably this year compared to last. Plus now they realize they're going to have to pull a Nintendo this year making this VR solution basically the cheap Wii choice over the more expensive XBox/Playstation Occulus/HTC.

cdm283813

It was called innovator edition for a reason. Early adopters needed to understand this before they bought it.

I wish Google Cardboard had quality lenses with focal length and field of view that matched each individual phone (like Samsungs Gear VR).

Goolgle Cardboard is at best the lowest common denominator and.. kinda sucks a little for all phones.

gizak

Galaxy S6 Active is a 2015 flagship and I don't see it pictured. It probably will give you the longest viewing experience too since it has the largest battery.

cdm283813

I doubt it. I consider the active to be a specialty device available on one carrier only. I haven't seen how their able to get the different sizes to fit but not sure it's worth the trouble for a device with low sales. Not saying it's a bad phone; just one that is rare vs the other models.

Daggett Beaver

Meh. Not into VR.

Ender

I know Oculus is contributing their software to the project, but I don't know to what degree. Obviously it won't be able to play the majority of OculusVR titles as they're made on PC, so I don't know why it's $99. I would say that's completely unjustified and that it's almost the same thing as Google Cardboard using different materials, but I don't know how accurate that statement is either.

Wjdzm

"...almost the same thing as Google Cardboard using different materials"

I am keep hearing people say this and it's hilarious.

guestington steele

It's not that far off.

It's a plastic Cardboard with a gyroscope, proximity sensor, and accelerometer. Can't be more than a couple dollars worth of chips.

Michael Miller

Regardless of whether one wants to say this is Google Cardboard with a different case, the final experience is so much better, it's more refined, there is more content and to top that quality content. If $99 is the fee to entry I think it's well worth it, especially since I know this is a platform that has passionate people behind it working and making deals to constantly get more quality content on here it isn't just a unfinished Google experiment that Google doesn't contribute anything toward to make the best product it can be.